Category: Paganism

This is one of those posts that I don’t want to write, but I need to write (and have been asked to write). And so, I’m going to write it. But note that this is under duress.

You see, I am going through an ordeal right now. I have been for months. And the fact of the matter is, it’s of my own choosing.

Well, kind of.

I am choosing to write this for a couple of reasons. I think the biggest reason is that I need to finally come out and say what the heck is going on in my life, and why I haven’t blogged in two months. But it’s also because I don’t know if many understand what a spiritual ordeal actually is, and what it means to go through one. I’ve seen many people focus on the spiritual aspects of a goal and not recognize the ordeal that needs to be gone through in order to achieve that goal. Or, people only focus on the spiritual aspects of the ordeal only to deny the practical disciplines that need to go along to achieve the spiritual goal. That is one of the reasons why I’m being asked to share this right now. To use the well-worn phrase, be careful what you wish for people.

Let’s get some clarifications out of the way before I go further.

The Background of an OrdealFirst, what exactly is an ordeal? The definition of an ordeal, through a very quick Google search, is, “a painful or horrific experience, especially a protracted one.” Now, with that definition, why the hell would anyone want to go through one?

The quickest answer I can come up with is to become stronger. Or, to become wiser. And, well, to live. We actually are going through ordeals almost daily in this world. Sickness, trauma, arguments with others and many other things can be considered ordeals. For a while, there was a meme going around that said: “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.” Those battles spoken about in that meme are other people’s ordeals.

So my belief about these ordeals is that since we have to go through them anyway, why not learn from them? Why not try to approach the ordeal in a manner that will help you further your understanding about a specific topic or issue? Or even better, how can the ordeal help you work on uncovering and dealing with issues that you carry? For me, that is a very specific point of my spirituality; to use ordeals to better understand the world around me and for my own self-improvement.

So as someone who gravitates toward a self-centered concept of paganism, who only 6ish years ago found deities that she agreed to work with directly after a multi-year hiatus, and is starting to find her voice again in the community, it makes perfect sense that my mundane ordeals would have a spiritual aspect to them. It also makes sense because I am doing intimate work with specific Gods. And those specific Gods expect that you clean up after yourself and work towards a common goal.

These ordeals are a blessing in that when you are done you will be absolutely shocked at the mountains you have climbed, the struggles you have gotten through, and that you did all of the things that you thought you couldn’t do.

Ordeals are also a curse because you are about to go climb those mountains, work through multiple struggles, and do all of the things you think you can’t do right now.

It seems like many pagans today seem to equate ordeals with spirituality only; as in, they only focus on spiritual struggles (initiations, rites, and other journeys) and assume they are the only path for spiritual growth. Some even focus so hard on the spiritual aspects that they literally are hiding from the physical issues of their life (which in fact, are their actual ordeals). Still, others may focus on the physical as not an ordeal, but something else. They may, in fact, give the physical issue a spiritual cause (e.g., someone is out to get me). That is where discernment is absolutely necessary to understand what is really going on. In my case, yes, there are other reasons why things are happening in my life right now, and I recognize the cause and effect of those reasons. But at the same time, I know my issues are part of an ordeal and that this ordeal is physical and spiritual in nature. I say that because I see the results of the struggle that I am in. There are both physical and spiritual benefits to this to this struggle. That in my mind classifies this as an ordeal.

The Path to My Own OrdealLooking at things as ordeals comes naturally to me. Long story short, I’ve set myself on a path of reinventing myself once before, and although it took some time, I’ve come through those struggles beautifully. I’m proud of what I have accomplished, and because of those accomplishments, I’ve caught the eye of a certain one-eyed deity.

Odin is very much a deity that appreciates people dealing with their own crap. And I’ve done several cycles of dealing with my own crap already – once doing a full reinvention of myself, and multiple times in overcoming significant obstacles and fears. Looking at that resume that I am so proud of, it makes sense that he’d want me to be working for him (to put it bluntly).

Other than following through with the self-improvement, I wonder if Odin also works with me because I have developed skills to handle new ordeals. I’m disciplined (for the most part), and I have the drive to push myself forward, even sometimes at the expense of overdoing it and hurting myself. I’m also stubborn as all hell and if it meant proving a point, I will take on detrimental actions that in the end will cause more trauma than it will likely be worth (but I proved my point, dammit). So there are lots of pluses and minuses here.

Anyway, Odin comes along, and I agree to work with him. And in the span of a year and a half, I start a new spiritual training program, decide to go to graduate school, find a degree program that matches my interests, start it, take on a larger role in my work life, and find my intuitive readings becoming more and more accurate and specific as well as going into deeper spiritual issues. And I often find myself being drawn to do specific readings at specific times, giving the client “exactly what they needed to hear” (their words, not mine).

And if that wasn’t enough, the energy of my household raised to the point where my husband started feeling it and started his own road of improvement. And just as he started his own training, he was laid off of his work (which I think was all part of his spiritual development as well). Overall, being laid off will be a good thing – he was being underutilized and there was no room for growth at his former employer – but the finding of a job has added a level of deep stress for him and I to both be dealing with.

Again, you can see spiritual ordeals are not just spiritual tasks. You face things that you are holding onto that are detrimental to your growth. You go out of your comfort zone, taking risks you wouldn’t normally take, and most importantly, changing your habits and mindset to allow for more understanding and compassion for yourself and others. After all, ordeals are meant to open yourself up for a clearer link to the spirits and to the Gods, and sometimes it’s shadow work that is keeping you from them. Shadow work cannot be cleared up by spirituality alone.

Now Onto My ConfessionTo put it bluntly, this ordeal is kicking my ass.

It’s taking me places in my psyche that I haven’t talked about, haven’t dealt with before, and couldn’t even define with words until a month or so ago.

I now realize that I have a very, very deep animosity for myself, my intelligence, my skills, and my abilities. I believe this animosity to be a learned behavior, but also a congenital one. And that animosity has influenced my life in ways I’m still realizing. It’s one of the reasons why I (still) cope with overeating. It’s the reason why I haven’t followed through in some of my past self-improvement endeavors, and it’s the reason why I sometimes push myself so hard I break my own body. There are other things I’ve realized too; other things that I haven’t really articulated before (and if I tried to explain, I’d take up two or three more blog posts just to describe), but the animosity is the one I’ll confess now as it is front and center in my head.

But now that I know it is there, the ‘mental tape’ that was buried for so long just reinforcing self-defeating behavior is now something I hear loudly being played over and over again as I continue to step out of my comfort zone. While I’m doing homework in my class (that I have to pass with a B or better just to stay in the program – no pressure) I am constantly fighting it beat me up and telling me I will fail. I get tapes at work telling me I’m not good at my job and will be laid off soon, making me lose my house and my security because we have no other cash flow. At home, I’m not doing enough, I’m ugly, I’m fat, and I’ll never be any healthier.

Why are there multiple tapes going on? Because this animosity was buried so deep it has become a habit, so just acknowledging that it is there isn’t going to stop it. I need to figure out and establish new tapes to replace the ones that keep flooding my brain, and ultimately, create new habits that will replace the bad ones.

So while I’m dealing with all of the uncomfortable feelings of this animosity, and with the insecurity of my current financial status, I have other questions about the success of this endeavor in my head. What if I do succeed in getting rid of this animosity? What then? Who will I be? What will replace it? What will my comfort zone look like? Will it be a place I want to be, or am I asking for something I really don’t want and don’t know it?

And from a spiritual perspective, the question about why Odin is pushing me to do this is also at the forefront of my mind. Don’t forget, Odin is a God of manipulation as well. He does things for reasons we won’t always understand. And that manipulation may not have any right or wrong to it; in his mind, it is all for the greater goal.

To say all of this has brought up insecurities, anxiety and other uncomfortable feelings is an understatement. I’ve had panic attacks, bouts of anger, bouts of depression, frustration, tears, and so many other emotions I’ve lost track. But while all of these emotions are being sorted out, I’m still working 45ish hours a week (in a job I like, so that is good), putting in about 35 hours a week on my graduate studies, trying to get in some sort of healthy exercise, keeping up spiritual disciplines and trying to be support to my job seeking husband as well as helping to keep up the house and try not to let my emotions get the best of me so that a fibromyalgia pain flare-up doesn’t sideline me.

This shit is hard. But it’s meant to be. And I keep getting reassured that each and every piece of this ordeal has meaning. Every struggle day in and day out is part of the ordeal. And I do know this won’t last. My husband has had 11 interviews in two months. The only reason he isn’t working is that the firms he’s interviewed with are taking their time due to the holiday working schedules (it happens at this time of year). He’s putting in the time so the financial security will come…sooner or later. I’ll be finished with my class in mid-December (after I finish a final examination, which has its own negative mental tapes playing in the background).

I keep reassuring myself (and getting reassured) that I’m doing everything I can, and I’m doing it all right. I’m making the mindful choices, I’m sticking with things and putting in the time I’m supposed to be doing. I just need to keep moving on.

Final Thoughts
I’ve been focused on self-improvement work for the past 16 years. I’ve done a lot, and I’m still always surprised at the requirements that are laid out before me to achieve another personal goal. I know I do more than many others do when it comes to spiritual discipline, but I also recognize that there is give and take here. If I want to do more, or am asked to do more, I have to be ready to accept the burden of the ordeal to prepare me for that endeavor. I also have to accept the responsibility that comes along with the tasks I’m asking to take on.

Not everyone is fit to be a teacher, a mentor or a spiritual leader. Not everyone is meant to be a Priest or Priestess. But yet we all have something to contribute to the pagan community as a whole. Our task, if we want to be a part of a pagan community, is to find that thing we are meant to do and serve our community as we can. This means that we will have to go through at least one spiritual ordeal in our lifetimes. And while my personal ordeal is tough, I am recognizing that it is also very much about finding that place in the pagan community as a whole. So I will continue with it to the best of my ability. There is still a chance I may fail, and I accept that. Either way, I will be continuing to learn, and that is the most valuable thing I can do.

Yesterday I presented a circle casting for a ritual I’m planning next week. I very much wanted the rite to be somewhat general in its layout so that the participants could take away things from it that they needed, but not feel like they were pushed into something that felt like a specific rite from a specific spectrum of paganism (e.g., a ‘Heathen’ or ‘Wiccan’ rite). I also didn’t want it to feel like things were simply ‘pulled’ from those specific spectrums.

So a lot of the rite are things that I have written specifically for this ceremony. But when it came time to write an invocation to divinity, I found I was blocked from writing anything down, but couldn’t figure out why. So after some prayers and mental soul-searching, the prayers below came out. After that, I was able to write the rest of my ceremony.

I’m still not sure if what I’ve written are more invocations or dictations of what these two Gods mean to me, but they both had to come out before I could write anything to any other deity. I’m ecstatic at how they turned out. I truly do enjoy both and their personal feel to me. They feel very powerful and profound. But after looking them over and preparing to transfer them from the scrap paper to my poem collection, I realized that my requirements to these Gods was not yet finished.

I needed to share both of these prayers here, on this blog.

Even as I type this post, I am still fighting doing this. And the excuses are continuing to flying around in my head for why I shouldn’t do it. Today is the autumnal equinox. I should be posting about that instead of doing this. I just posted yesterday, I should wait and post this next week or later because I don’t like doing a lot of posts and then nothing at all for weeks on end. And the one that is really stopping me; these prayers are too personal to publish.

But I’m not getting out of this, and I already know that.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that perhaps I’ve not been ‘putting myself out there’ as much as I should be, or how they want me to. I’ve talked months before on this blog about building a religious path for myself; one that has specific prayers, specific traditions and offerings that speak to who I am, what I believe and whom I serve. I’ve also put myself out there as serving the pagan community as a whole. But I’ve stayed away from labeling myself as anything other than a pagan. These prayers, with their kennings and truths very much do that. They are an open book to how I view myself and my relationship with these Gods.

So without further excuses, I offer the prayers here. Feel free to comment and discuss. I know I’ll be thinking about this exercise for some time as I figure out my adversity to doing it.

Invocation to Odin
Hail, All Father
Song singer, my voice for you
Wisdom seeker, may I learn your cunning
Teacher, may I learn your teachings
Warrior, may I grow in prowess
One Eyed, may I seek to know and understand
Yule Figure, may I learn joy and unknowing
Rune God, may I learn the Runes
Shapeshifter, may I learn the Seidh
Slain God – may I learn to give of myself
May I ever be your daughter

Perhaps this yet another post that was a ‘long time coming’ (That seems to be the start of a theme of posts for me.)

Things I yet again thought I had dealt with are still coming up and bugging me to the point where I finally have to start writing…AGAIN. And while with this particular subject I would normally just start writing in my personal journal and not post publicly, I’m starting to believe the subject matter needs to be discussed more openly, and thus, has become another blog post.

The subject is Christianity.

I’ve written quite a bit about Christianity lately. I’ve frequently shared articles on my Facebook page regarding the work of Pastor John Pavlovitz, more specifically, about some of the shared truths that he and other Christian pastors write about. I’ve also gotten angry and written posts about how broken Christianity feels like to me (a post that upon retrospection, feels more like a rant than anything, but it still needed to come out at the time).

I was happy when one of my posts sparked discussion, and something from that discussion stuck with me. It was a Facebook post where one of my other friends, a Christian gentleman, started to speak about how frustrated he was that he couldn’t speak about his religion and the comfort it gave him without being bashed about the ears by people who were expecting the next words out of his mouth to be ‘come to my church and see..’

So I guess I’m not the only one who feels oppressed.

I think the deep introspection of the past several months has caused me to realize that I need to speak my mind, but not just throw words at the topic to vent, like I did in the broken religion post. I need to talk about how I still hurt, how I have issues thanks to someone’s interpretation of Christianity, but how I still recognize that Christianity as a whole isn’t that bad. And maybe my being public about things might allow someone else who has some of the same issues to at least think about it.

Yes, you read that right. I’m a non-Christian that doesn’t think Christianity is that bad. Seriously. The concepts of loving another as yourself, not judging another, taking care of the poor, even the discipline of going to a church and prayer are all good things. In fact, the concept of faith is something I learned in Christianity that I keep with me even now.

But just because I don’t think Christianity is bad doesn’t mean that I don’t still have a lot of anger to deal with because of my upbringing in the church. The fact of the matter is a great majority of people today were born into some semblance of Christianity. Many of these people have issues because of that upbringing, and they still carry a lot of anger and resentment toward the entire religion because of said issues. And I’m still one of them.

But – confession time – I don’t WANT to be someone who has issues with Christianity. I want to be able to say that I can dismiss the stupidity of certain Christian followers and accept that which is good. I want to be able to sit down with the gentleman I spoke about above, have a pint and enjoy a good conversation about how our lives are so much more enriched because we BOTH have faith in something more powerful than we are. There is common ground here that I think is rich with opportunities for bridge building, and I’d love to have those conversations to see what specifics we do have in common.

Although I long for conversations like these, I wonder frequently if I will ever be able to have them. A good conversation means egos, anger and any suggestions of ‘conversion’ need to be in check. But still, many Christians I speak with find it their duty to convert heathens like me to the ‘one true’ way.

Come to think of it, now that I am someone who just opened myself to the possibility of sitting down with a Christian to talk about religious practice, or how I read the blogs of Christian leaders, did I just open myself up to people who think I am ready for conversion? Possibly. (And if so, I’ll give you the same response I’ve given throughout my life; No.)

Now I can’t do anything about people who feel like it is their duty to convert, but I do know that if someone whose underlying belief is to convert people because their religion is the ‘one, true way’, then you will never be able to have an open heart discussion with them. The fact is that if someone believes truly in conversion, you will never know if what they say is from their heart, or if it is in the attempt to make you a convert. And it makes everyone who opens their mouth to say the “C” word in any form or fashion suspect.

And the main sticking point of my anger is right around that ideal of conversion. I call the root cause of that conversion issue the ‘fear of God’ syndrome. People feel like they need to convert because the fear of God is something that is instilled in every young Christian in school. You get raised with this idea that God is so nice, supportive and gentle until you do something wrong and don’t apologize. Then this God becomes a vengeful being that shames you to eternal pain for the rest of the existence of the world because you dared to do something he didn’t like. And when the young Christians get to the ripe age where they start to think for yourself – everyone goes through this crisis of faith and either learns to conform, or become like me and recognize things can be different. And if we truly believe in our heart that things can be different, we now get to deal with this fear of angering this vengeful God. And that was the thing that screwed me up the most; This fact you could be doing the exact same things that the Christian God teaches AND STILL go to this eternal frying pan because you don’t do it in his name.

(Images flash in my mind of the South Park episode where the kids freaked out every time they did something they thought was a sin and had to run to church to confess it. Poor Kenny!)

Perhaps some Christians are aware of how conceited it sounds that some put the Christian faith above others. But many don’t. Instead, they relish in it. It’s a perfect place for their egos to thrive and grow; as NOW they have a GOD GIVEN RIGHT to put everyone underneath them because only THEY and THEIR friends and family are CHOSEN ones. And it’s those people that have poisoned it for everyone. For me, who wants to reach out, and for others, like my friend who is tired of being punished for crimes he didn’t commit.

And people wonder why some of us go out of their way to avoid anything that has any Christian leanings. It’s because the true reason for the speech or action regarding Christianity will never be known. Are you one of the idiots trying to gain power? Are you someone who’s trying to ‘hook’ more souls for your Christian God? Or are you someone who is just sick and tired of the whole mess some people have made of the Christian religion and want to just have a good conversation about faith and how it can truly move mountains no matter what you believe in?

In short, “Are you a Good Christian, or a Bad Christian?” I ask, as I hold my ceremonial drinking horn. (I gave up the wand – and the athame might scare people.)

I jest. But if I don’t jest I might get mad again. And I don’t want to be mad. Sure, I’ll have to talk about my hurt for a while longer. And perhaps I’ll have that pint and hear about another’s hurt and how they feel just as oppressed. But what is more important is that I want those good Christians to know that my anger isn’t directed at them. There will be things I post – Stuff that needs to be said, to use the title of Pastor Pavlovitz’s blog – but I don’t do it to directly make someone else feel uncomfortable. I do it to heal. I do it to express how much anger I still have left within me. I do it because someday, I don’t want to have that anger. I want to shed that anger and pick up that pint and talk about how excited I am to share my practices with another person. I want to share about how my faith in my Gods makes me feel connected to everyone around the world, how we all need to respect each other. I want to talk about how when I make a mistake I have to do more than just confess it. I want to talk about how I don’t bow to my Gods, just as I don’t bow to my boss, my mentors, my teachers or my husband, but instead I show respect in other ways. I want to share how my vows to be a better person mean I have to push myself out of my comfort zone and force myself to do more to raise my energy and understand my fellow human being better.

Now, more than ever, I truly believe we need these bridges built between communities. Bridges are the only way we are going to understand each other, and once the understanding is there, compromise is possible. We see every day how non-compromise is causing trauma and pain and fear. And if it means having more semi-open conversations before we can get down to business, then I am all for it.

I started building a new radio station to listen to at work based on one of my favorite bands, Breaking Benjamin. I’ve been in a bit of a melancholy mood for a while now so it fit to create a station around them. (For those that don’t know, the lead singer of Breaking Benjamin has been pretty public about his personal issues with anxiety and phobias, and to me you can feel that in his music. You can also feel the strength he uses to fight those illnesses, and that is what appeals right now. Times are tough, and we can be upset, but we also have strength in spades to get through).

So everything is going pretty well, and of course, as Pandora is designed to do, new music pops up. And it’s from the band Skillet. This is a band I wrote about awhile back. They are Christian, and don’t shy away from speaking about that. In fact, the reason they are still together is because one of their pastors counseled them to keep pushing forward and continue to speak about the “Glory of God”. In other words, keep that recruiting up! We need the revenue! (Yes, I’m aware my bias is showing here).

So that song got the Pandora thumbs down.

Then Ashes Remain came on. Again, another Christian Rock band. I looked them up, and they are too much like Skillet for my tastes. So another thumbs down logged. After the third Christian band popped up, I just decided to start looking up a list of “Christian” rock bands. I found out there are quite a few. The Color Morale, Red, Beartooth, Thousand Foot Krutch and many others I listen to identify as Christian. And that really bothers me.

So my choices now were that I’m going to have to either keep logging thumbs down on songs a lot more than I thought, or I’m just going to have to accept that there are a lot of Christian bands out there and pick and choose what I like. And if I just listen to them anyway, I get to do this despite the fact that I feel like most of these bands are out there specifically to recruit people to a religion broken by the people who identify with it.

Believe it or not, this is a pretty hard decision for me. I’ve done my best to steer clear of Christianity for many years. Christians can go live over there, and I’m here in my own belief system that suits me just fine. And occasionally, on my own terms, I’ll seek out those that I know don’t ‘recruit’ and see what they have to say. Speak to me about learning to become a better person, helping the planet or helping others gain their basic human rights and we will have things in common. Talk to me about how my religion is somehow wrong or beneath yours, and the conversation will very quickly be over.

However, times are changing, and perhaps the mix that Pandora chose for me is just a catalyst for the realization that I have more lessons to learn. Sooner or later, I’m going to have to accept that those of the Christian faith who look at me differently are integrated around me more than I feel comfortable about. Right now I just keep that out of my mind. However, perhaps that habit is a negative response, especially because of the amount of anger that comes up when I think about it. And sooner or later, I’m going to have to deal with that anger; the real reason my bias exists.

So here is the crux of the matter: I have more issues with the Christian religion than I thought. And now, I’m going to have to get off my gluteus maximus and figure out what those issues are and deal with them.

I talked about the fear of God syndrome once before. And I thought that once I wrote that post, that I had dealt with my issues regarding Christianity, and that was that. I thought I was doing a good job separating the religion from the people. Because honestly, the religion itself isn’t THAT bad. Love one another. Judge not lest ye be judged. Be still and know that I am God. Let him without sin cast the first stone. All of these things have profound meanings. And they are meanings that transcend the Christian religion. To me, it’s the PEOPLE who claim to be Christian that cause 90% of the problems with that religion, maybe even more.

I don’t need to go far to come up with excellent examples. Look at those who are against abortion. Sure, they are pro-life while the child is in the womb, but the minute the child is born there will be very little support it if the child was born outside of a strong family unit. Look at the prosperity gospel and how many people who have given up their entire life savings hoping for a miracle. Finally, and what angers me the most, is the issues in the current situation. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard ‘Christians’, in the current political climate argue against verses from the book that they claim to follow. “Oh, that verse is just hyperbole. Verses like that are throughout the entire bible.” Or, “Sure, it says turn the other cheek, but at the same time, Jesus wouldn’t want me to stand by and watch as my family gets robbed and killed.” Plainly put, these people will twist things to match what they want to believe, and they don’t give a shit about the true meaning of that religious text.

Perhaps I’m tired of seeing how people twist religion to make it fit what it is they want to do. It’s the same with the racism in Heathenism. There are interpretations of many religions that inflict more harm than they do good, and when that happens, there is something seriously wrong with the people that profess to be following that religion. Perhaps it wasn’t the case in older times, but in the current age I firmly believe that religion is meant to help us understand the world around us and how we fit in with that world. I firmly believe that the times where religion divided us should be over. We have evolved further than that.

But unfortunately, power over people is still something that is strived for by many. And religion is a tool that has been used for thousands of years to do just that; get power over people. And for the most part, people are programmed to accept that when it comes to religion, you are expected to relinquish your power to get anywhere. And thus you have the strife and conflict that we see today. And that leads me back to my current dilemma.

But at least now I can speak to the issue more clearly.

I am pretty damn angry at people within the Christian churches. I’m angry at how they failed me in my upbringing, how they didn’t answer my questions and how they forced me to follow along in a religion even though I felt so very different in my soul. I’m angry at the strife they caused me and so many other people like me that felt different. I’m angry that they made us feel like outsiders unless we conformed. I’m very angry they caused us to be afraid of the very Gods that were there to help us the entire time. And I am mad as hell that I have to deal with all of the leftovers of this upbringing. I get to deal with all of the confusion and pain as to why I can’t understand or fit with the people who call themselves Christian. I get to deal with them time and time again telling me that I still am wrong and that I need to ‘get with the program’ in order to save my soul. I get to deal with the embedded ‘fear of God’s wrath’ if I dare try to be myself. I get to deal with how I felt back then because I dared ask questions that people couldn’t answer. And last but not least, I get to learn over and over again how to be a survivor in a country that claims to be Christian, yet refuses to treat people the way their own Jesus said to.

And I’m allowed to be mad. I’m allowed to be mad as hell. I’m allowed to be so mad that I can spit nails anytime anyone asks me if “I’ve found Jesus” yet. Yeah, I found him, and he’s over in the Middle East doing what he can for the refugees that are dying. And now that you mention it, I saw him the other day in your church, bent over the altar weeping at those using his house for their own personal gain.

Obviously I’m showing my anger. I’m trying to get it out; to get a name to it. I need to identify and deal with it. I need to deal with it because of people like John Pavlovitz, Rob Bell, Michael Beckwith, Revered Ed Bacon and many others. Although these people are only a few of the vast number of Christians out there, they believe differently. They believe like me; that God is large enough to be involved in many different religions. They believe we are stronger if we support and take care of each other, no matter what religion you profess. And their beliefs contain the possibilities of what Christianity could become. So there is hope. Further, and thanks to the current political climate, I’m reminded that I, someone who is in a religion in the minority, needs to learn to work with others who are in the minority. Get enough of us together and we will become the majority, forcing change throughout the country.

Even if it is for that last reason alone, I need to deal with this anger.

I’m not sure where this thinking is going to lead me. I hope it’s someplace positive. I don’t want to dismiss good people trying to do what is right. And I know the people I mentioned above are trying to do just that. But the tenant of my faith says that I must work on myself; that I must overcome my own shortcomings and strive to be a better person. This is what it means to me when I say I stand with my Gods.

So I guess because of my faith, my religion, I need to figure out a way to be more accepting to those that truly profess theirs. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to feel bad for not listening to Skillet and bands like them that profess the current status quo of this currently broken religion.

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

~ Howard Thurman

Over the year that I have been working with Loki, Sigyn and Odin, I have found a happiness that I never thought was possible within religion. In all of my years as a practicing Christian, I never felt the Christian God the way I feel the ones that I am working with now. Yes, the Christian God felt alive to me, but I didn’t “feel” like one of “his” children. Even when I was doing other pagan and Wiccan practices, I never felt so close to the Gods as I do now. The more devotional things I do for Odin, Sigyn and Loki, the more I feel and hear them.

I wonder if in today’s constant strife regarding the role of religion if this is something that we are lacking. We see a lot of posts about how and what people think about their Gods, their practice and what other people should or shouldn’t do, but we aren’t seeing many posts about how we FEEL about our Gods. Perhaps if we looked at how we feel about our Gods, and in turn how they feel about us, we wouldn’t have as much argument. It doesn’t matter how we find our own ways to get there, but in the end, if you are content with your practice and feel the connections to the Gods, then that connection can be a starting point to reach out to other religions.

My connections to my Gods make me feel alive. They soothe my soul and make me feel whole. Odin helps me to understand that I do not know everything, and that I have a long road to get to the level of understanding that I want to be at. He recognizes that I have value in who I am and in what I do, and that I’m not afraid of going outside that which I know in order to get something done, especially in his honor.

My connection to Loki is one that is very hard to describe. I feel his passion and fire within me, and that has gotten me through rough times, especially when I am having a hard time with my chronic pain. Loki also helps me learn to accept all of myself. This includes those pieces of me that I feel are less than desirable. I’m allowed to be angry, I’m allowed to dislike things. But I am also allowed to recognize those feelings but that I don’t have to DO anything about them. I can let things go as they may; I don’t have to make everything right for everyone, or even for myself. And while I am not constantly on the lookout for the rug to be pulled out from under me in some aspect of my life, I recognize that it may happen. And when it does, I am enough to do whatever it is that is needed to make the best out of the situation.

Sigyn is a much deeper lady than anyone gives her credit for. To know her is to know that there are other aspects of her that she does not show to many. She is the consoler, but she also does not let people shirk their duties because of their pain. She asks of you to do what it is you can, to find the limit and work to it, then to recognize that that is enough. Some days those limits are higher than others. Sometimes they are much lower. Either way, that is OK. She also teaches that once you have met the limit, Rest for your body and for your soul is always necessary. She is the champion of us who have chronic illness, a lady of quiet wisdom and strength, and a child of wonder and awe. She is someone you must sit with for a time as she must know you before she opens herself to you.

Some readers may also remember that I am the holder of a medicine pipe of Native American traditions. This relationship too has been solidified over the year. I am not as afraid as I once was of the power that likes within the sumac and pipestone. Instead, I recognize that its purpose is to help heal and teach those who are within its influence. Ceremonies with the pipe are not things that happen often, but when they do, they will need to be done very carefully and purposefully. And even when the pipe is in its bags, proper respect is still expected. I find myself still giving offerings to it whenever I feel it is necessary. Finally, the pipe doesn’t have to be out to speak. It will speak to whomever it needs to, whenever the time is right.

A year ago I made pacts with these Gods that I would renew within a year and a day so long as they still wanted me, and I still felt comfortable with them. Now I recognize that the connections that I have made with them will last much, much longer. And I am absolutely OK with this. It feels so nice to finally find a home. It just took me throwing out some of the things that others taught and feeling my way through my own truth.

Perhaps speaking about these connections will help others speak about their own feelings regarding their relationships with the Gods. Perhaps they will think on how they feel, and recognize that we all have a common starting point; the joy and comfort the Gods bring as well as the continuous lessons that we receive on a day to day basis. I don’t expect this post to change all that. But it might get some people thinking at least about expressing their own connections to divinity. And even if it doesn’t, I’m still happy at the fact that I can express the relationships that I have had a hand in making for myself.

As I go throughout my life, I recognize more and more that I need limits. Not only are they important in my physical life and in dealings with other people, but they are important in my spiritual life as well.

I am not the type of person to shy away from a challenge, especially when it pertains to my self-improvement. I’ve done a lot of things toward the goal of making myself a better person over the years. I’ve lost significant amounts of weight, quit smoking, quit eating things that were bad for me or that I was allergic to. (I know that one is a given, but I know family members who refuse to give things up, even when they know it hurts them!) I’ve changed my demeanor to the point that I have had people who haven’t seen me for a while come up to me and tell me I am a totally different person than what they knew before. The changes aren’t being driven from the outside. Instead, I’ve always wondered how far I can push myself to change, and to see what those changes would do for me.

Self improvement is one of the very basic things that I believe the Gods want us to do in this lifetime; we have to deal with the things that we are given, deal with the things that we have done to ourselves, and of course, deal with the stuff that others do. We have to get through all of this in order to get to the nature of who it is we are as human beings. It is only then that we see the gifts that the Gods give us to use in service to ourselves and others.

To that end, I believe the Gods take an active role in pushing you further in this life. They are going to give you opportunities to come to terms with things that are going on. They are going to give you opportunities to deal with roadblocks you put in your own way. And as a reward, they are going to give you keys to the different gifts that you hold inside of yourself. And the more you push yourself, the more the Gods will push you to go deeper into your spiritual path. In the end, what you do makes you better equiped to do their will on this planet. It’s never more than you can handle, but they still give as much as you think you can take.

That’s where the limits come in.

I’m recognizing the days of ‘overhauling’ my personal nature are pretty much over. At 41, I’m finally recognizing that I am enough, and that a lot of the mistakes, abuse and issues from my past are now dealt with. And if they aren’t dealt with now, they are at least on their way to becoming dealt with. But for a while there, I still kept piling on projects like I still needed a lot more work, and the Gods reciprocated by opening up other doors of possibility for me.

Finally, a couple months ago, I was feeling pretty overwhelmed with stuff. . A friend of mine, after hearing about how in conversations with my Gods I was told about these possibilities, said to me that it was OK to say no. That thought had never occurred to me before. Say no to a God? Seriously?

It took me some time to realize it was true. And it’s all a part of self-care that I needed to do for myself now.

Now I understand. My Gods want me to say ‘no’ from time to time. It helps them know that I am putting my self-care first, something that is very important because of the physical maladies that I have to deal with on a day to day basis. They want me to know that I can stand up for myself, whether it be to them or to someone else who is either imposing on my time or causing me undue stress and harm.

I have a bet too, that I’m not the only one that needs to say ‘no’ occasionally. Gods, especially those in the Norse pantheon, don’t want us to bow and venerate them all of the time. They want us to work with them, both to make ourselves better and to make this world a better place. But the only way we can effectively enter a relationship with them and do that is if we are honest about our own limits. It’s weird to think that we can say ‘no’, as I know many who worship in pantheist traditions don’t think that they can. And those of us who were brought up in said traditions immediately carry that mindset of not being able to say ‘no’ to their polytheist practice.

Now that I have accepted it, I realize setting limits needs to happen frequently, and we need to be aware that they change. As a sufferer of fibromyalgia, I am constantly reviewing my efforts to stay active. And that means that if I want to pursue one activity, another one is going to suffer. I have to be OK with that. It doesn’t mean I’m going to drop the activity that suffers, but it does mean that it needs to go on hold for awhile. This is the same with my spiritual practices. I can’t spend an hour each day on practicing and reviewing the runes while also wanting to do a significant meditation practice and build a better spiritual gardening practice. All of that takes time and energy, and with fibro, both of those are significantly limited.

Especially as we start to journey toward the Autumnal Equinox, I find my spiritual practices going back to focusing on balance. Limits need to be created and maintained in order to find that balance. We still aren’t through this extensive year of work yet; and I expect the next months until year’s end are going to be very productive on many different levels. Reviewing and redefining my limits right now are going to go a long way to getting myself ready for the work ahead.

Last week I was lucky enough to be at Pennsic; an event for members of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). And while this event is very much a part of the SCA, there is a significant group of pagans that attend as well. In fact, many of the classes had a religious twist to them, while others classes taught beginning forms of magic and prayers.

So you would think that with the amount of different belief systems that were represented in this 11,000 person gathering, a tolerance to other belief systems would be something that you would see a lot of. Unfortunately, this was not the case. There were many times during the week I saw instances of people using their religion to justify lack of respect for others during the week. That really bothered me.

Of the things I saw, two things stood out the most. The first happened around the campfire. I was listening to gentleman in the group I am affiliated with speak about Muslims. Unsolicited, this person started to explain that if you read the Koran you would find verses there that tell Muslims they must kill others who don’t believe the same as they do. He then doubled down and said Muslims weren’t ‘true’ to their faith if they did not believe these verses. Not wanting to get involved in a debate, I told him that I was going to agree to disagree with him, and that there were many different interpretations of the Koran. This just pushed him into a frenzy to say whatever he could to get me to believe what he does. After a few minutes, someone else changed the subject. Unfortunately, this was a man who I really looked up to, and listened to. I don’t know what he thinks of me now, but in my mind he no longer is held in the high esteem he once was.

The second issue came up during a discussion with the founder of the group. I found out about it second-hand, or else I would have gone off on the younger member myself. You see, the founder was told by this younger member that because he was Heathen, his Gods told him he didn’t need to bow to them, and thus he will not bow to bow to any other person, including this gentleman. He further said to the founder of the group that nothing the founder said or did on his behalf would be welcomed. He went further in denouncing and belittling the founder, but I think you get the point.

This really bothered me. Yes, I go by this belief as well, and yes, I don’t bow to my Gods. But I still treat them with respect, much like I treat my elders with respect. The founder of this group is very much an elder in the SCA, but also an elder that is looked up to for his teaching ability and his talents. The younger member not only didn’t treat this person with respect, but he belittled and demeaned him. And that was very hard to hear for me. And again, I lost a significant amount of respect for this young man.

In the altercation with the gentleman around the campfire, perhaps he was right on one point – perhaps the Koran does have verses in it regarding the killing of others. I have honestly not read it, do I don’t know for absolute certain. But I have read the book of Leviticus in the Christian Bible, and I know there are significant stanzas in that book that are not looked on as law today. Those include having slaves, not touching the skin of a pig, and not wearing clothing made out of two different types of fabrics. But yet, Christians pick and choose what they want to believe out of that book, so it is an easy assumption that a Muslim may consider doing the same thing, especially when they preach peace between religions (like many I know do).

The belief about Muslims being forced to kill others is damning, especially in today’s world. But I think there is a deeper, even worse problem here. This person never thought about asking another Muslim what they believe. He never asked another Muslim why they believe what they do. Instead, he felt reading their religious texts and making up his own mind without any outside influence was the best thing to do. Therefore he believed his interpretation of that text is right.

The holy texts of many religions are hundreds and hundreds of years old. They were written by man, who is not infallible, but they were inspired by God. There are many things in those texts that just don’t fit today’s society. Certainly there were reasons back then for those things, but in this day and age they just don’t make sense. Therefore trying to understand a holy text on your own without some sort of help or without someone that can answer any questions you may have is going to skew the beliefs that come out of the text in the first place.

In the second scenario I heard about, the young member is a solitary heathen, who again has read the lore and has formed his own beliefs. He does not practice with any other group, as he finds other groups ‘limiting’. And here, I agree with him in the fact that our Gods do not want us to venerate them like those in other religions do. But that doesn’t mean you don’t give them the respect they deserve. That doesn’t mean you don’t give them offerings and thanks. Perhaps if this young person would go to their local group or get online sometime he might recognize that. But instead, this was again a case of someone learning about something on their own and not asking questions. This one bothered me significantly, because this person is representing MY religion. And after hearing this happen, I had to explain to the head of the house that unlike this young member, I will be treating him with the respect he is due because of his position, as well as treating him with honor and respect because he is a fellow human being and a good man worthy of that respect.

These situations made me realize how much we really don’t know about people’s religions. We can take religious classes, we can read books on religious subjects or read the holy texts of the religions we wish to learn about all we want. However, if we don’t go to those who practice the religion on a regular basis and get their input, we will never be close to understanding the true meaning and peace that a particular religion can hold for its followers.

When someone doesn’t seek out those who wish to share their beliefs openly, it is easy to fall into many of the assumptions that are so common:

Christians hate anyone who is involved in the LGBTQ community

Muslims believe anyone who does not share their religion are infidels and must be put to death

Anyone who calls themselves a son or daughter of Odin is a racist

Witches are always Wiccan

And on and on the assumptions go.

I refuse to believe these assumptions. Are there bad groups within each religion? Of course there are. And if I find out someone believes something that belittles or exposes their hate for another, I choose not to listen to that person speak about any religion anymore. I can simply step away or shut down the conversation, and I have a right to (politely) do that. I don’t need to get into a debate with that person because they have already made up their mind. All a debate would do is to make everyone involved frustrated and angry. Some people may say the debate would be a healthy thing because there is an opportunity to change someone’s mind. But what is more likely to happen is more hate and anger being spewed regarding the opposite side. I saw a lot of that going on last week on blogs, and I refuse to help spread it.

So instead of trying to debate or change someone’s assumption about a religion, I will choose to look for those who don’t assume. I want to talk religion with those who are open to hear what others think, despite what some holy writ or text says. This is my way of not continuing to spew assumptions and judgement on others, and I think we need more of this type of thinking in this world.